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Thursday 9 May 2002 20.05 EDT
First published on Thursday 9 May 2002 20.05 EDT

As creators, writers and performers of the strange theatrical journeys into adventure and comedy that are the Mighty Boosh, Arctic Boosh and Autoboosh, Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt operate in that twilight zone between children's playground fantasies and dreams of rock stardom. Inspired as much by Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are as by the Stooges, they combine stories of postmen taking off to the North Pole in search of a magic egg with a visual style that, in Fielding's case at least, owes a debt to Rod Stewart circa 1972. Now they're writing a new version of the Boosh for the BBC, which takes place in a zoo.

"Animals are an important inspiration for us," claims Fielding (the pretty, smiley one). "At the moment I'm reading a book about Australian mammals. Banana rats, fork-nosed bandicoots - you can't go wrong." "We're trying to do something magical," adds Barratt (the surly, unshaven one). "Much as I love The Office, I don't want to do something that copies it - The Cupboard, for example. We're into the idea that there might be a hole in your bedroom wall that takes you to another land, but with a sense of reality; our zookeepers always return to the zoo after their magical adventures."

"All the shows are based on the idea of a quest," says Fielding. "We're not particularly inspired by other forms of comedy. Julian played in bands and I came from an art background, so we wanted to do some kind of performance with those influences. It started off as something like the Mothers of Invention meets Morecambe and Wise."

We're at Noel's house, where his impressive collection of paper-plate paintings and children's books take up one wall and plenty of shelf space. Julian has been up all night and has turned up without any records or books, having failed to return home the night before. He claims to have lost all interest in music, anyway. "I spent so long drowning in Scott Walker albums that I hate him now, and nothing sounds good any more. It's just not working for me. And I hate everything that Noel likes." But both can agree on Captain Beefheart, while Julian left Noel behind at the gates of jazz - John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders - before he gave up music altogether.

The Boosh strain of comedy seems to be born of long evenings in bedrooms spent surrounded by records, books and ephemera collected from charity shops and car-boot sales across the land, which are used as platforms from which to launch into new worlds. Noel turns to a picture from his Puss-in-Boots Ladybird book featuring the hero of the tale struggling to pull on his new footwear. "I was obsessed with that picture when I was a kid, for the same reason that I was obsessed with the New York Dolls," he says. "Both are freaky and quite scary. There's something hugely inspiring about the way this picture of a cat trying to put on a boot looks entirely real, or the fact that this band of men look like ugly women."

Julian's Ladybird favourite is The Three Billy Goats Gruff. "It was the first one I ever read, and it was terrifying. It's the one where they have to pass the troll who lives under the bridge. I remember proudly shouting to my parents: "I faced it!"

Noel's band of choice is the Stooges, and his favourite album Funhouse. "What I really like about them is the way they look," he says. "You wouldn't want them to come round your house, because they would break everything and rape your daughter, then be sick all over the place and leave syringes on the floor."

A more cabaret version of the Stooges' rebellion comes from Kiss, also a favourite of Noel's. "When I was a kid I didn't know what they were. Were they a cartoon, or monsters, or real men? What's going on? I loved that." He has an album by jailed sleaze-funk legend Rick James, which has a gatefold sleeve featuring James with an outrageously sleek, jheri-curled, relaxed, shoulder-length afro. The hairstyle begs the question: What's that all about? "It's the nadir of style," says Noel. "The album's all right, but it's the hairstyle that made me buy the record."

Wisdom and adventure is contained within Mr Benn's Book of Life. Starring the children's TV favourite who walked into a fancy-dress shop to embark on an adventure suited to whatever costume he tried on, it's Barratt and Fielding's bible. "He goes on adventures, and it has philosophical statements like: 'Play enriches us all' and 'Real freedom is liberty at no one's expense,' " says Noel, studying the book. " 'Beautiful sounds are in the ear of the beholder.' Wow!"

A couple of other recent inspirations include Trout Fishing in America by the late Richard Brautigan, and Raggedy, the creature made of sticks who lived in the woods and terrified Rupert the Bear and his friends. "Brautigan has nice ideas and images - he'll have a scene where it rains Mexican hats, for example. As for Raggedy, he was a massive influence on us - we have our own stick-man called Black Frost. You could say it all started with Raggedy."